Born in Bleggio Superiore, Trento, in the north of Italy, Rudy graduated in 1981 from Italy’s prestigious Agricultural University of San Michele all’Adige, one of the world’s premier enological schools. In 1983, he decided to “go south”, as he liked to say with regional Italian pride, to work as an intern at the nascent Banfi estate in Montalcino. He fell in love with the territory and the company, so he decided to stay, and in 1999, he was named Chief Winemaker, succeeding his long-time mentor Ezio Rivella. At the time of his passing, Buratti oversaw nine managers and fifty winery workers and enjoyed a direct relationship with the Mariani family, proprietors of Castello Banfi.
We wish to share with you all the salute to Rudy delivered during the service by Cristina Mariani-May. "The premature passing of our dear friend and colleague Rudy is a huge loss for the entire wine world. For this wine world that Rudy loved until his last hours and to which he gave 35 years of his life with passion, humility and courage. The first to enter the winery, the last to leave, after checking that every single detail was in its place, that every wine was evolving in the best way, that every man and every woman of his great team worked with the same passion, accuracy and punctuality. He did it every day, uninterrupted until his last day, until a week ago when, already gravely proven by his illness, for the last time he left his beloved winery and his people, his second family. Rudy leaves a huge emptiness in all of us, a gaping hole for his wife Ursula and for Alexandra and Carlotta, his young and beloved daughters. However, he also leaves so much hope in those who stay behind and many beautiful and indelible memories. Ciao Rudy, it was an honor having you with us for all these years. We will remember you in every wine we drink, in every glass that we raise to heaven and in all the battles that we will win together. Thank you."
The young enological team he had the opportunity to build will follow his teaching, continuing working with the same passion for research and for this territory, where Rudy arrived when he was only 22 years old. Rudy had the opportunity to live the energy of the beginning of Banfi’s history, since the early ‘80s, when all the important research projects started that made Banfi growth and built the company into what it is now. In all these years, since 1999, when he became our Chief Winemaker, he taught his team all his knowledge, day by day, working side-by-side with them and passing down to them his sense of humility, his courage for experimentation and his ability to look always towards the future.
His enological team will continue his work in the same spirit that in so many years he showed them.